CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) - The City of Chicago has now opened a center on the West Side to help people who have been incarcerated find an easier path back into society.
Brandie Knazze, the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Family and Support Services, kicked off the opening of the city’s fifth Community Reentry Support Center, saying it’s important not only for the returning citizen but society too.
“Without access to reentry navigation, job training and education and other supportive services, many individuals face a higher chance of reoffending,” Knazze said.
The center will be run by the Safer Foundation, and Mayor Johnson said it offers a broad range of services.
“The services offered to these centers include employment assistance, education, mentoring, support groups, access to housing and food assistance, access to substance abuse and mental health services,” said Johnson.
The Illinois Department of Corrections released some 12,000 former inmates to Chicago each year. Three-fourths are from just 15 communities on the South and West Sides.
West Side alderpersons like 24th Ward’s Monique Scott said finally their community has a Community Reentry Support Center, giving people who have been involved with the justice system help in finding housing, jobs, food assistance, counseling and much more.
“This is investment. This is revitalization. This is the resources that you bring to a community that has been impacted by disinvestment,” Scott said.
Evelyn Moran went through the program with the Safer Foundation.
“As tough as it was to be incarcerated, I am grateful for this experience because it brought me to 16 years of sobriety and reunited me with my family,” Moran said. “I started working at Safer Foundation in 2011.”
Now, she has a good job with Chicago’s Department of Streets and Sanitation.
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